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Chapter 7Economic Systems :

Chapter 7Economic Systems The Allocation of Resources
The Conversion of Resources
The Distribution of Goods and Services

Economics :

Economics What do you think of when you hear the word:
ECONOMICS?

Common to all societies :

Common to all societies All societies have economic systems (although they may not have money)
All societies have customs specifying how people gain access to natural resources
All societies have customs on how those natural resources can be transformed
All societies have customs for distributing and exchanging goods and services

The Allocation of Resources :

The Allocation of Resources Natural Resources: Land
Technology

The Allocation of Resources :

The Allocation of Resources Natural Resources: Land
(every society has access to natural resources and cultural rules for who can access those resources and what can be done with them)
Structural variation in rights to land:
Food collectors
Horticulturalists
Pastoralists
Intensive Agriculturalists

Food Collectors (most leisure time) :

Food Collectors (most leisure time) Generally do not have private ownership of land
Land itself has no value, but the wild plants and game on the land do have value
The more likely it is for wild plants and animals to fluctuate in their location, the more advantageous is a communal ownership of land for food collecting societies
When wild plants and animals are somewhat predictable there is usually territories owned by kin groups

Horticulturalists :

Horticulturalists Like food collectors, most do not have individual ownership of land
May be due to rapid depletion of the soil in an area and the need to move on a regular basis
Unlike food collectors, horticulturalists are more likely to allocate certain plots of land within a larger garden

Pastoralists :

Pastoralists Their territories are usually vast
Like food collectors, pastoralists need to know the potential of large land areas in terms of its natural resources
Like horticulturalists, pastoralists need to move on when they have depleted the resources in an area
Generally, free access to land and water
Animals are owned

Intensive Agriculturalists :

Intensive Agriculturalists Right for individuals to buy, own, and sell land is common
Will generally use the land season after season
Homestead Act of 1862 – 160 acres of land for 5 years
Feudal and manor systems of medieval Europe
Collective farming in the USSR

The Allocation of Resources :

The Allocation of Resources Every society makes use of technology, including tools, constructions, and required skills.

Tools and technology :

Tools and technology Food collectors and pastoralists generally have small tool kits made by the owner
Intensive agriculturalists and industrial societies have tools made by specialists
Nomadic groups have fewer possessions than more sedentary groups
Socialist and communist societies have more communal or public ownership of tools and technology

The Conversion of Resources :

The Conversion of Resources In all societies, resources have to be transformed or converted through labor into food, tools, and other goods in a process called production.

The Conversion of Resources :

The Conversion of Resources Types of Economic Production:
Domestic – get food and provide shelter for individual and kin
Tributary – most people produce their own food, but an elite class take a portion
Industrial – industrial revolution with people-powered factories and mass production
Postindustrial – computer-run factories
Telecommuting – work from home

The Conversion of Resources :

The Conversion of Resources Incentives for Labor ($$$)
Forced and Required Labor (Taxes) (most common in complex societies)
Division of Labor
The Organization of Labor
Making Decisions About Work

Figure 7-1 (p. 111)Comparison of the Proportion of Work Tasks Done by Adults and ChildrenSource: From James A> Levine, Robert Weisell, Simon Chevassus, Claudio D. Martinez, and Barbara Burlingame, “The Distribution of Work Tasks for Male and Female Children and Adults Separated by Gender” in “Looking at Child Labor,” Science 296 (10 May 2002): 1025. :

Figure 7-1 (p. 111)Comparison of the Proportion of Work Tasks Done by Adults and ChildrenSource: From James A> Levine, Robert Weisell, Simon Chevassus, Claudio D. Martinez, and Barbara Burlingame, “The Distribution of Work Tasks for Male and Female Children and Adults Separated by Gender” in “Looking at Child Labor,” Science 296 (10 May 2002): 1025.

The Conversion of Resources :

The Conversion of Resources All societies have some division of labor, or customary assignment of different kinds of work to different kinds of people.
Gender and Age – a universal basis for division of labor in ALL societies

The Distribution of Goods and Services :

The Distribution of Goods and Services Distribution of goods and services can be classified under
three general types:
Reciprocity - consists of giving and taking without the use of money
Redistribution - accumulation of goods by a particular person, or in a particular place, for the purpose of subsequent distribution
Market or Commercial Exchange - transactions in which prices are subject to supply and demand, whether or not the transaction takes place in the marketplace or whether or not it involves money

The Distribution of Goods and Services :

The Distribution of Goods and Services Reciprocity consists of giving and taking without the use of money.
Generalized Reciprocity - When goods or services are given to another without any apparent expectation of a returned gift (usually through close kin)
Balanced Reciprocity – When goods or services are given with the expectation of an immediate or limited-time trade